Claimants seeking resolution at the Employment Tribunal are facing the highest backlog since records began, stripping workers of their ability to enforce their rights, new research from the Work Rights Centre reveals. 

The report, Employment Tribunals in crisis: The blind spot in the ‘New Deal for Working People’, finds that as of December 2025, there were over 65,000 open cases awaiting resolution. This is the highest backlog since records began in 2017, and a staggering 43% increase in just 12 months. 

While the government’s own impact assessment expects the newly passed Employment Rights Act 2025 to lead to a significant (18%) increase in cases, judicial capacity is far outpaced. Over the past three years, the backlog increased at more than three times the rate of available sitting days, and overall there are 19% fewer employment judges in post than in 2022.

Drawing on analysis of Ministry of Justice Statistics, data obtained through Freedom of Information requests, interviews with practitioners and analysis of National Tribunal User Group minutes, this research points to a system on the brink of collapse.

Key findings:

• Judicial capacity outpaced. In the two years to March 2025, the backlog increased at more than three times the rate of days judges sat in court. Secretary of State David Lammy has announced that 2026/27 will have fewer sitting days than both years prior, despite the government’s own estimate that the Employment Rights Act will lead to an 18% increase in cases.
• Loss of judicial resources. Despite the surge in cases, the number of judges in post is 19% below the level in 2022. 
• The ‘London Gap’: London judges face a caseload more than twice as high as in other parts of England, and five times higher than Wales. In one of the worst instances, a case lodged in January 2025 in the London South tribunal was listed for 2029.
• AI-assisted litigants in person: The lack of accessible and free employment legal advice has pushed many to use Artificial Intelligence tools to build their case, contributing to an increase in complex cases. 

Dr Dora-Olivia Vicol, CEO of the Work Rights Centre said: “The UK’s primary mechanism for workplace justice is in freefall, creating a paradox where workers have more rights on paper but are less able to enforce them in practice. When victims of discrimination or wage theft are forced to wait four years for a resolution, the legal process ceases to be a remedy and becomes an additional burden. For the rule of law to be meaningful, justice must be accessible. 

“Ministers risk shutting the door on justice, unless they urgently align enforcement resources with their legislative ambitions. Without immediate support for judicial capacity and legal advice, access to employment justice will become a luxury of the past.”

Ruth Neil, Employment Solicitor at the Work Rights Centre said: “Justice delayed is justice denied. The longer our clients have to wait to put their case in front of a judge, the more time unscrupulous employers have to dissipate assets, enter liquidation, or find another way to wriggle out of justice. 

“These extended delays hit migrant workers hardest, as many are forced to leave the UK by Home Office rules, before their hearings are scheduled. The Foreign Office received 197 requests from individuals to give oral evidence from abroad via video link from 2022 to 2025. Not a single request was granted. This impossible hurdle forces many vulnerable workers to abandon their pursuit of justice entirely, sending a message that their rights are lesser than their UK-resident counterparts.”

Join the online report launch event on Tuesday 19th May at 15:00, with panellists Lord John Hendy KC; Stephen Daws, Principal Legal Officer at the Free Representation Unit; Emiliano Mellino, Senior Investigative Journalist at The Bureau of Investigative Journalism; Matt Creagh, Employment Rights Policy Lead at the TUC. 

The Work Rights Centre is a registered charity dedicated to ending in-work poverty, helping migrants and disadvantaged Britons to access employment justice and improve their social mobility.

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